How To Get Paid $50,000 To Travel The World For Six Months

I normally don’t throw around the adjectives “biggest” or “baddest” very often — except maybe when discussing Edwardian Era-British foreign policy — but the Biggest, Baddest, Bucket List contest from MyDestination.com easily fits those descriptions. Running from January 28 to March 31, the winner of the contest will receive a six-month, all-inclusive, blogging trip around the world, including stops in no less than 25 countries, and a reward of $50,000 upon their return.

It’s not all fun and games though. Part of the requirement of the trip is that the winner will need to blog for MyDestination.com as they travel, cataloging the people they meet, the sights they see and the food they eat. Imagine that: getting paid to write a travel blog!

Sponsored by Hotels.com, Travelex and Viator, contestants are required to submit a few things to enter. First, they must create their own travel video, sharing local knowledge and tips for people who might visit their destination. Second, contestants must write a short travel blog about an interesting travel experience they’ve had, accompanied by three relevant photos.

And that’s it. Heck, some of us do that every day without even bothering trying to win 50 grand in the process.

I reached out Co-Founder Neil Waller and asked him why they decided to put together this contest. I mean, $50,000 is a lot of money to give away. Why not give away a stylish pair of slacks or an e-book or two?

We’re an online travel guide that’s been built on the core belief that the best type of travel information comes from passionate locals. We devised this contest as a way to really try and engage the “crowd” that the social media age we live in allows you to reach out to with relative ease. Every entrant is going to be sharing with us (and everyone else) their tips and insights about their destination.

That for us is just an exciting thing to be able to achieve, and having already attracted people to the competition from over 185 different countries, we can’t wait to see what people have to share with us. We really want people to be able to see what an amazing, friendly and welcoming place the world is and what better way to learn about that than through everyday local people?

Noting that putting together this type of epic contest is no easy task (Waller estimates that it’s been seven months and counting worth of work), the endeavor has been, in his words, “one of the most exciting things we’ve ever done and something we are very proud of.” Something tells me the winner might be a tad bit excited too when they find out they’ve been picked.